John Mitchum, 82

Brother of famous actor

played bit parts in films

John Mitchum, who followed his movie-star brother Robert to Hollywood and became a character actor who appeared in scores of movies and hundreds of television shows, has died. He was 82.

Mr. Mitchum, who died Thursday at a Los Angeles hospital, appeared on screen in the 1950s as John Mallory and under his own name after 1962. He had small parts in 80 feature films, including "Stalag 17," "Submarine Command," "Chisum," "Paint Your Wagon," "High Plains Drifter," "The Outlaw Josie Wales" and "Bandolero!"

On television, he appeared on about 800 shows, including "Gunsmoke," "Perry Mason," "Dragnet," "Batman," "Twilight Zone," "The Waltons" and "Little House On the Prairie." He also had recurring roles on "Riverboat" (as Pickalong) and "F Troop" (as Hoffenmueller).

Mr. Mitchum's most memorable role was as Clint Eastwood's detective partner, Frank di Georgio, in "Dirty Harry" and its two sequels: "Magnum Force" and "The Enforcer."

A singer, songwriter and poet, he had a far more unusual show-business distinction. He wrote and co-wrote the words to the only album John Wayne ever made, "America, Why I Love Her," a 1973 work of patriotic poetry recitations that was re-released after Wayne's death in 1979.

The album earned Mr. Mitchum a Grammy nomination in the best spoken-album category.

Mr. Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Conn., in 1919.

In 1933, the two Mitchum brothers--16-year-old Robert and 14-year-old John--hitchhiked and rode the rails to California where their sister, Annette, was living in Long Beach.

John Mitchum later followed his brother's lead and went to work at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank.

Drafted into the Army in 1944 and discharged in 1946, Mr. Mitchum was walking down Santa Monica Boulevard a year later when an agent asked him if he was an actor. When Mr. Mitchum said he wasn't, the agent said, "So, do you want to be one?"

As recounted in his memoir, Mr. Mitchum was taken to a studio on Cahuenga Boulevard where the director of a pioneer saga called "The Prairie" gave him a once-over and cast him as the naive young man in love with the heroine.

He appeared in a handful of films with brother Robert, including "The Lusty Men" in 1952 and the 1989 TV movie "Jake Spanner, Private Eye," in which the Mitchums played brothers.